The List of anti-suffragists is an alphabetical list of individuals and organizations that publicly opposed extending voting rights to women. Entries are organised by country and cover politicians, writers, religious leaders and social reformers active throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Opponents argued that women's suffrage would disrupt traditional gender roles, undermine societal stability or weaken national institutions. Opposition spanned the political spectrum and included both men and women, some of whom believed that women's influence belonged in domestic or philanthropic spheres while others claimed that women's suffrage would hasten socialism or secularism. Entries include notable individuals who campaigned through speeches, publications, parliamentary motions or membership of anti-suffrage organisations.
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Victor Adler | 1852–1918 | Physician, founder-leader of the Social Democratic Workers' Party | In 1903 he told the party's women's section that the fight for the male franchise must come first and that women "had to take a back seat," leading the movement to drop its suffrage demand until after 1907. [1] |
Karl Lueger | 1844–1910 | Mayor of Vienna and head of the Christian Social Party | Lueger, leader of Vienna's Christian Social Party (CSP), was known for both his antisemitism and his opposition to women's suffrage. Argued suffrage would benefit only Jewish women and undermine Christian and "Aryan" dominance. [2] [3] |
Franz Martin Schindler | 1848–1917 | Catholic theologian; CSP social theorist | Schindler, in particular, held the belief that women were destined to fulfill their duties in life solely within the home, based on their "natural lack of physical force, depth and composure in judgment, determination in will, and perseverance in action." He argued that these perceived deficiencies made politics unsuitable for women and upheld a gender dualism that confined women to the spheres of home and charity. [4] |
Georg Ritter von Schönerer | 1842–1921 | Pan-German nationalist deputy | Dismissed female suffrage as "idiocy," claiming it was demanded only by women "who had failed in their calling as women" and by "Jewesses." [5] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Charles Woeste | 1837–1922 | Politician, consul for Prussia | According to The Brussels Times , Woeste "fought fiercely in parliament to prevent Belgian women from gaining the vote." [6] However, in a 5 March 1902 speech in the Chamber of Representatives, Woeste declared that before granting "pure and simple suffrage exclusively to men," (p. 268) and the Catholic right would "make women's suffrage triumph," suggesting he viewed women's suffrage as a political tactic to counter the expansion of universal male suffrage favored by socialists. [7] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Carl Ploug | 1813–1894 | Poet, editor and politician | Ploug called the 1888 bill on municipal suffrage for women a "link in a chain" toward "political equality of women with men" and urged the Landsting to "stop at the first step." He insisted women were "not particularly suited for legislative work," that "ordinary women as a whole really do not want to be able to vote," and that society would suffer if they were "drawn away from the acts of love that lie before them to quarrel … in a parliament." [8] |
Jacob Brønnum Scavenius Estrup | 1825–1913 | Politician, member of the Højre party | He retained a mistrust of universal suffrage and parliamentary rule by the Folketing. [9] Højre party and Estrup supporters blocked women's participation in political life in the Rigsdag (Parliament). [10] He held the view that his political engagement stemmed from a sense of duty toward the king and the fatherland. [9] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Robert Hermanson | 1846–1928 [11] | Professor of constitutional law, jurist, and politician | Hermanson played a central role in the 1906 Finnish suffrage struggle as the chair of the Parliamentary Reform Committee tasked in November 1905 with drafting the new suffrage rules. Despite his leadership position, Hermanson was a vocal opponent of women's suffrage. He believed that women were "by nature emotional creatures prone to extremism and ill-suited for politics and the vote," expressing clear resistance to their political inclusion. [12] [13] |
Karl Heikel | 1844–1921 | Banker and politician | As a member of the 1905‑06 Parliamentary Reform (Hermanson) Committee he argued that only some women, "not the lower social orders", should be eligible for Parliament, pressing to restrict women's candidacy and keep full political rights from working‑class women. [14] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Edmond Lefebvre du Prey | 1866–1955 | Politician | Lefebvre du Prey represented Pas-de-Calais in the National Assembly from 1909 to 1927 and served in the Senate from 1927 to 1940. [15] Lefebvre du Prey said granting the franchise would "undermine the family and give women direct control over public affairs." [16] As vice-president of the inter-war Groupe parlementaire pour la protection de la natalité he stated in Senate debates that female voters would follow priests' orders and "imperil the Republic," and he helped send every suffrage bill (1919-36) back to committee where it died. [17] |
Pierre Marraud | 1872–1958 | Politician | In 1922 Marraud's committee report recommended indefinite postponement, arguing that "the woman of the Latin race," unlike her Anglo-Saxon or Germanic counterparts, had not developed the same civic sensibilities. Marraud claimed that French women were generally more absorbed in their Church, whose dogmatism they did not question, and therefore it was reasonable for their legal status to remain different from that of men. [18] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Hans Delbrück | 1848–1929 | Historian and politician | Opposed women's suffrage, advocating for a "true and perfect state" as inherently masculine, viewing suffrage as a provocative expansion of political participation that threatened monarchical principles. [19] |
Ludwig Langemann | 1854–1930 | Anti-suffrage leader | Chairman of the German League for the Prevention of Women's Emancipation (Deutscher Bund zur Bekämpfung der Frauenemanzipation). According to Langemann, women's suffrage threatens "the most masculine people on earth"; must be prevented "in the holiest interest of humanity." [19] |
Paul Julius Möbius | 1853–1907 | Neurologist and writer | Authored On the Physiological Feeblemindedness of Women (1900), claiming women's intellectual inferiority to support anti-feminist arguments against women's suffrage. [19] |
Paula Müller-Otfried | 1865–1946 | Social reformer and anti-suffrage leader | Led the German Protestant Women's League (Deutsch-Evangelischer Frauenbund), which remained neutral but included anti-suffrage members. Müller-Otfried expressed concerns that women's suffrage could destabilize traditional familial and religious roles, describing political rights as a "two-edged sword." [20] |
Kuno von Westarp | 1864–1945 | Politician | Senior deputy of the German National People's Party (DNVP). Publicly demanded revocation of women's suffrage in November 1920, later admitting opposition despite its electoral benefits to the DNVP. [21] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Marika Filippidou | b. 1877 | Stage actress, poet, journalist | During the interwar period, Filippidou contributed a series of columns to the women's journal Ellínis in which she described politics as "a turbulent arena" that conflicted with women's nature of "calm and composure." She also stated that granting women the right to vote would pose a threat to Christian family values. [22] |
Pipina Vallosi | 1850–1913 | Journalist, essayist, and philanthropist | Vallosi argued that "the natural calling of woman is the quiet, restful, domestic life, not the ever‑moving, turbulent, public one". [23] She asserted that "woman's natural field of activity is the household", repeating the maxim "Men make the laws, women make the morals". [24] She argued that women's emotional nature rendered them unfit for political judgment. [25] |
Panagis Tsaldaris | 1868–1936 | Prime Minister of Greece (1932-35) | Tsaldaris emerged as the principal parliamentary obstacle to expanding women's rights beyond the limited municipal vote of 1930. In a 1934 article, Roula Koromila, reported Interior Minister Ioánnis Moutzourídis' admission that Tsaldaris himself was the "τροχοπέδη" (brake) preventing the bill that would have allowed women to stand for national office. [26] The stalemate forced activists into the courts, where the Athens First‑Instance Court rejected all female candidacies on 1 February 1934, partly due to low female electoral registration (about 4,000 women registered). [27] His wife Lina Tsaldari was a right-wing suffragist. [28] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Jón Magnússon | 1859–1926 | Politician, Prime Minister of Iceland | Magnússon expressed concern that the sudden enfranchisement of all women could lead to the formation of a new gender-based political faction or bloc, which might significantly reshape political power by electing predominantly women representatives. He cited the example of Reykjavík, where women had previously formed separate voting lists, as a precedent illustrating this possibility, an outcome that worried many conservative politicians. [29] |
Jón Jónsson í Múla | 1855–1912 [30] | Farmer and member of Alþingi | He is credited with proposing in 1911 that women aged 40 and older should get the right to vote. Although he was generally opposed to women's suffrage, he made this age-limited proposal because he considered it "completely unwise to increase the electorate by two-thirds all at once." This was intended to slow down the sudden empowerment of a large new group of women voters. [29] |
Sigurður Sigurðsson | 1864–1926 [31] | Politician, member of Alþingi | Sigurðsson stated: "Political work is no game. It is almost a dirty job, and in such work, we must protect the women of the nation." [29] |
Lárus Bjarnason | 1866–1934 [32] | Politician, member of Alþingi | Bjarnason stated: "This very large expansion, which increases the number of voters by more than half, could have incalculable consequences..." is documented in discussions around the 1911 suffrage reforms in Iceland. [29] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
John Dillon | 1851–1927 | Politician | Dillon, a member of parliament and deputy leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP), opposed extending the vote to women. In a speech he stated that women's suffrage would, in his view, undermine Western civilisation and overturn what he regarded as the divinely mandated authority of men within the home. [33] |
William Edward Hartpole Lecky | 1838–1903 | Politician, historian and essayist | Lecky opposed women's suffrage. While he acknowledged that women brought some desirable qualities to legislation, he believed the emotional element in Parliament was already sufficient. He questioned whether women would truly want seats in Parliament, given the abuse and "names" politicians were exposed to. [34] |
John Redmond | 1856–1918 | Politician | Redmond and the IPP voted against the Parliamentary Franchise (Women) Bill in 1912. This bill would have extended the vote to some women, but Redmond and his MPs sided with Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, an anti-suffragist. [33] According to Historian Margaret Ward, Redmond's opposition to suffrage was not just a matter of political expediency, but rooted in long-standing personal doubts about women's right to vote. [35] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Giovanni Giolitti | 1842–1928 | Prime minister of Italy (1892–1921) | Giolitti was firmly opposed to granting women the right to vote at the national level during his time as Italian Prime Minister. During the 1912 electoral reform debates, when some deputies proposed extending suffrage to women, Giolitti strongly rejected the idea, calling it "too risky" and "a leap in the dark." He argued that women's suffrage should only be considered gradually, starting with local elections, and only after women had demonstrated full exercise of their civil rights. Instead of advancing the issue, Giolitti appointed a commission to study legal reforms, effectively postponing women's suffrage indefinitely. As a result, all proposals for women's voting rights during his tenure were defeated. [36] |
Pope Pius X | 1835–1914 | Head of the Catholic Church | In a 1906 address he stated: "...women should not vote, but devote themselves to a higher ideal of human good [...]. God save us from political feminism!" [37] Pius X publicly opposed any form of women's suffrage, a position conveyed through official channels. Despite this principled objection, many Catholic women did not fully accept the prohibition. [38] Activists in France cited his opposition as their chief argument against enfranchising women. [39] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Hendrikus Colijn | 1869–1944 | ARP leader, Prime-Minister (five cabinets, 1925-39) | Colijn accepted the 1919 reform only under party discipline; in 1937 his fourth cabinet rolled back several civil-law gains for women and openly lamented "premature political rights" for them. [40] |
Abraham Kuyper | 1837–1920 | Founder of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) and Prime-Minister (1901-05) | Kuyper and the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) advocated a "huishouders-kiesrecht" (householders' vote) that would restrict the franchise to male heads of household, working together with the Roman Catholic Party; the proposal was ultimately defeated. [41] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Johan Christian Heuch | 1838–1904 | Bishop in the Church of Norway and politician for the Conservative Party | Present at Parliament's (Stortinget) first debate on women's suffrage in 1890. Bishop J.C. Heuch, a leading Conservative, opposed it, arguing it would undermine women's identity and "make her a deformed monstrosity, a thing of no gender," leading to "degradation, the disturbance of the home, the successive disintegration of the family and a thereby unavoidable moral decline." [42] |
Ole Olsen Malm | 1854–1917 | Physician, veterinarian, civil servant and politician | In 1907, Malm argued in Parliament that involving women in the "maelstrom of public life" and "strong brain work" would make them ill, suggesting instead that improving men's conditions would allow women "a carefree marriage." [42] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Afonso Costa | 1838–1904 | Republican party premier & justice minister | Costa's 1913 Electoral Code reversed earlier suffrage gains by explicitly excluding women and sharply restricting male eligibility. Reacting to the post-revolution surge in voter participation, Costa sought to rein in what he viewed as destabilizing democratization. [43] |
António de Oliveira Salazar | 1889–1970 | Prime Minister of Portugal | Under Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo regime, Portuguese women saw a gradual return of limited suffrage: the 1931 Decree No. 19,694 granted the vote to women heads of households or those with secondary or higher education (while men needed only literacy); in 1934 these women could also vote in local council elections; a 1946 reform kept the same educational threshold for women but required only male literacy; and in 1968 full gender parity in voting rights was achieved, albeit still limited to literate citizens, which disproportionately excluded women. The first national election open to these qualified women was held on February 8, 1934. [44] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Ivan Grigorievich Shcheglovitov | 1861–1917 | Minister of Justice; Council of State member | In the 3rd Duma, Shcheglovitov opposed women's suffrage, arguing that women's "very nature [is] inclined to passion, [and] could only encourage even more the development of political fervor, hindering the quiet and mature discussion of complex legislative matters." He maintained that "for the majority of women there remains an extraordinarily significant real barrier to the realization of these rights, namely their duties as mother of families and housewives." Shcheglovitov insisted that "one of the chief tasks of the twentieth century... consists of keeping women in the sphere most suited to them - the family and the home." [45] |
Filipp Alekseevich Kruglikov | 1856–c.1906 | Peasant deputy, 1st State Duma (Voronezh) | F. A. Kruglikov, along with fellow deputies P. A. Heyden and D. I. Shakhovsky, shared Maksim Kovalevsky's position that involving women in parliamentary activity was premature, arguing that such work was still unfamiliar even for men. They also noted that most deputies lacked understanding of peasant life and the role of women within it. As a result, the assembly decided to postpone decisions on women's suffrage, considering the issue too complex and requiring comprehensive legal reforms before political equality could be addressed. [46] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Victoria Kent | 1891–1987 | Lawyer, deputy of the Radical Socialist Republican Party | Kent opposed the immediate extension of the vote to Spanish women during the 1931 debates in the Constituent Cortes. She contended that most women were still subject to the influence of their husbands and parish priests and therefore would cast ballots that strengthened conservative, clerical forces rather than the progressive aims of the new Republic. [47] [48] Kent repeated this argument through 1931-32, even as other feminists advocated for full suffrage. [49] |
Margarita Nelken | 1894–1968 | Writer, Socialist deputy | Nelken opposed granting Spanish women the vote in the early 1930s, arguing that their limited education and political naivety would make them "simply duplicate the votes of patriarchal powers," thereby strengthening conservative forces. [50] She repeated this caution in parliamentary speeches and public lectures, urging that women first receive adequate schooling and civic instruction before exercising the franchise. [51] [52] Even after universal suffrage was enacted in 1931, she continued to frame education, not the vote, as the prerequisite for genuine emancipation, a theme she reiterated in later essays and talks. [53] |
Pilar Primo de Rivera | 1907–1991 | Head of Sección Femenina (women's wing of the Falange) | Primo de Rivera presented women's political role in terms of National-Catholic domesticity and opposed an expansive interpretation of universal suffrage. Contemporary analyses note that the Sección Femenina's chief purpose was to "indoctrinate women into the values of National Catholicism," a mission that placed family service above electoral citizenship. [54] Cultural historians add that Primo de Rivera presented emblematic gestures, such as ceremonially delivering an embroidered flag, to reinforce a vision of womanhood rooted in patriotic household labor rather than in parliamentary participation. [55] Within feminist literary scholarship, she is singled out as the "rampant anti-feminist" who argued that female suffrage would imperil Spain's social order. [56] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Fredrik Barnekow | 1839–1912 | Politician | Member of the Country/Lantmanna Party (Swedish: Lantmannapartiet). Second Chamber MP. Opposed women's suffrage, arguing that women were too noble for political life and too important in raising future generations to be allowed to leave the home for politics. He also invoked the natural difference between men and women. [57] |
Anders Göransson | 1845-1927 | Politician | Member of the Country/Lantmanna Party (Swedish: Lantmannapartiet), Second Chamber MP. Opposed women's suffrage, arguing that women had shown no need or wish for franchise rights, based on his experience as chair of his local municipal assembly. [58] |
Martin Nisser | 1840–1913 | Industrialist and politician | A member of the Protectionist Party, Nisser believed that the directive that "women should keep silent in the churches" still held validity, and therefore argued it would be unfair to grant women the right to speak publicly outside the home. [59] [60] |
Johan Fredrik Nyström | 1855–1918 | Politician | A member of the staunchly conservative Protectionist Party, invoked the "keep to their calling" argument against women's suffrage. He asserted that "it is an untruth, against which history protests from the first page to the last, that the sexes are equal and therefore should have equal rights. Everything great in the world has been accomplished by men". [61] Nyström further claimed that women were of an "impulsive nature" and "loved extremes," grounding his opposition in an essentialist and hierarchical conception of gender, and arguing that women's supposed nature made them unfit for political rights. [62] |
Annie Åkerhielm | 1869–1956 | Writer, journalist, anti-suffrage activist | Åkerhielm actively campaigned against women's suffrage and democracy, publishing the novel Fru Fanny and the poetry Till Skånes kvinna in 1904. [63] [64] Throughout her career, she contributed to politically conservative newspapers such as Gefle-Posten and Nya Dagligt Allehanda , which were known for their opposition to women's voting rights. [65] |
Gustaf Fredrik Östberg | 1847–1920 | Politician | Leading conservative politician and the first chairman of the Swedish Moderate Party (Moderata samlingspartiet). He argued that women's suffrage should be postponed until the expansion of voting rights for men had been achieved, using this tactical argument to delay women's enfranchisement. [60] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Annemarie Düringer | 1925–2014 | Actress and anti-suffrage activist | Düringer participated in anti-suffrage campaigns and media appearances in the 1960s; represented a socially conservative worldview. [66] |
Karl Hackhofer | 1893–1961 | Politician | Hackhofer of the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP) actively participated in the meetings of the anti-suffrage committees, attending several reunions of the Committee of Swiss Women Against Women's Suffrage in the lead-up to the 1959 referendum. [67] |
Gertrud Haldimann | 1907–2001 | Writer, journalist, anti-suffrage leader | Haldimann co-founded the Women's Committee Against the Introduction of Women's Suffrage in Switzerland in 1958. [68] This became the Federation of Swiss Women against Women's Suffrage in 1959, which she chaired until 1967. [69] She argued that women's suffrage was incompatible with Swiss direct democracy, unlike in other European countries where women could vote. [70] |
Verena Keller | 1911–1992 | Writer and anti-suffrage activist | Authored "Die Gründe gegen das Frauenstimmrecht in der Schweiz" (published in Neue Zürcher Zeitung , p. 132) and delivered speeches, such as at the Bundesfeier in Fahrwangen (p. 132). Her arguments focused on maintaining traditional gender roles and the perceived threat of societal instability due to women's suffrage. [71] |
Ida Monn-Krieger | 1916–1970 | Anti-suffrage leader | Monn-Krieger co-founded the Anti-suffrage Switizerland committee and served as the federation's secretary from 1959, later succeeding Gertrud Haldimann as president after Haldimann resigned in 1967. [72] [73] Monn-Krieger feared the loss of women's traditional role, believing women belonged at home raising children. [74] |
Hanna Seiler-Frauchiger | 1902–1993 | Anti-suffrage activist and writer | A leading figure in the Zürich branch, she authored "Gesellschaftliche Struktur und Frauenstimmrecht" (published in Neue Zürcher Zeitung , p. 132) and was actively involved in propaganda and lobbying efforts. Her correspondence with Gertrud Haldimann-Weiss reflects her belief in the movement's responsibility to oppose the "worldwide destruction of values" (p. 4). Her opposition was rooted in a conservative, elitist perspective, fearing societal change through women's political participation (p. 42). [75] |
Josefine Steffen-Zehnder | 1902–1964 | Anti-suffrage leader | Steffen-Zehnder founded the Action Committee Against the Introduction of Women's Suffrage in Switzerland in 1958, later renamed the Swiss Women's Committee Against Women's Suffrage. She stated that collective action was necessary because individual opponents were dismissed as "stupid and backward." The committee sought to legitimize anti-suffrage advocacy. Steffen-Zehnder also led the Lucerne Women's Committee Against Unrestricted Women's Suffrage, which petitioned against granting women municipal voting rights. [76] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Queen Victoria | 1819–1901 | Monarch | Vocal opponent of women's suffrage, describing the movement as a "mad, wicked folly." She believed women's roles should remain within the domestic sphere and actively discouraged advocacy for women's rights, stating in 1870 her desire to "enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of ‘Women's rights'." [77] [78] |
Eliza Lynn Linton | 1822–1898 | Novelist and anti-suffrage journalist | Wrote extensively against women's suffrage and feminism, referring to suffragists as the "shrieking sisterhood." She argued that women belonged in the domestic sphere and should not participate in political life. [79] |
Mary Augusta Ward | 1851–1920 | Novelist and anti-suffrage leader | As president of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League, Ward maintained that women's influence was best exerted through traditional roles rather than through voting, and she led organized opposition to women's suffrage. [80] [81] |
Violet Markham | 1872–1959 | Social reformer and anti-suffrage writer | Argued that men and women had "complementary, not identical" talents and should occupy different political roles. She criticized suffrage advocates for ignoring "hard facts and natural law," and promoted alternative avenues for women's contributions. [82] [83] |
Margaret Elizabeth Leigh | 1849–1945 | Philanthropist | Involved in the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League, a key organization against women's voting rights. [84] |
Gertrude Bell | 1868–1926 | Writer and anti-suffrage activist | Bell was a founding member of the WNASL in 1908 and served as president of its northern branch. She initially believed women could succeed without the vote, though her opposition reportedly softened after 1918. [85] [86] |
Ethel Bertha Harrison | 1851–1916 | Essayist and anti-suffrage activist | Served on the League's central committee and wrote essays contending that women were unsuited to political activities and should not be granted the vote. [87] |
Sophia Lonsdale | 1852–1936 | Social reformer | Vocal committee member and early participant in anti-suffrage campaigns. [88] [89] |
Hilaire Belloc | 1870–1953 | Writer and politician | Publicly opposed women's suffrage, expressing his belief that women should not be enfranchised. [90] |
Beatrice Chamberlain | 1862–1918 | Educationist | Contributed to the League's efforts against women's voting rights. [91] |
Mary Fox-Strangways | 1852–1935 | Socialite | Prominent anti-suffragist, using her social position to oppose the movement. [92] |
Violet Graham | 1854–1940 | Anti-suffrage leader | Led the Scottish National Anti-Suffrage League in 1910 when it formally affiliated with the English organization, and was a prominent advocate for the cause. [93] |
Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer | 1841–1917 | Statesman and anti-suffrage leader | Aring was a leader in the anti-suffrage movement, serving as president of the Men's League for Opposing Woman Suffrage in 1908, and later, from 1910 to 1912, of its successor, the National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage. [94] |
George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston | 1859–1925 | Politician | Openly opposed women's suffrage, stating that he was unconvinced it was "fair, or desirable, or wise" to add six million women to the electorate. Did not block the bill to avoid conflict between the Lords and Commons. [95] |
Philip J. Stanhope | 1847–1923 | Politician and anti-suffrage leader | Became joint president of the National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage in 1912. In 1914, a suffragette attacked him with a dogwhip at Euston Station, mistaking him for Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. [96] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Isabel Hamilton-Gordon | 1857–1939 | Author, philanthropist, and women's advocate | President of National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC). Initially cautious about women's suffrage and concerned it might harm the NCWC's reform efforts, she avoided publicly supporting the cause, noting its political controversy. [97] The NCWC only narrowly endorsed suffrage as an official policy in 1910, the year she first advocated for it within the organization. [98] |
William H. Hearst | 1864–1941 | Politician, premier of Ontario | Seventh premier of Ontario. Initially a conservative opponent of women's suffrage, aligned with the AOWSC's views early in his premiership. However, he shifted his stance by 1917, when his government passed legislation granting women the vote in Ontario. [99] |
Mary Plummer | 1877–1955 | Canadian Army officer and humanitarian | Between 1914 and 1917, Plummer served as corresponding secretary of the Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage in Canada (AOWSC), promoting its mission to oppose women's enfranchisement on the grounds that it would harm the state's best interests. [100] She facilitated membership recruitment, organized informational materials, and articulated the organization's stance through statements and publications. [101] |
Stephen Leacock | 1869–1944 | Writer and economist | Leacock is widely recognized for his short-story cycle Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912). [102] Several of his essays address what he called "the woman problem," expressing reservations about feminism and women's suffrage. In pieces such as "The Woman Question," he depicted contemporary suffragists humorously and maintained that women were, in his view, naturally inclined toward domestic responsibilities. Although he conceded that women were legally free to enter most professions, he contended that practical outcomes would remain limited because of what he regarded as enduring gender differences. [103] [102] |
Andrew Macphail | 1864–1938 | Physician and writer | In two essays published in 1910, "The American Woman" and "The Psychology of the Suffragette", Andrew Macphail argued that feminism reflected and accelerated what he perceived as the decline of American society, which he characterised as "vulgar," materialistic, and in moral decay. He advanced a vision of racial and gender hierarchy that placed Anglo-Celtic men at the apex and claimed women's suffrage threatened this arrangement. [104] Macphail, along with contemporaries such as Stephen Leacock, described feminist gains as challenges to what they regarded as immutable laws of nature and as potential sources of racial "degeneration." [104] Yet, as editor of the University Magazine, Macphail allowed opposing views, even publishing a pro-suffrage piece by Sonia Leathes alongside his own critique. [105] |
Rodmond Roblin | 1853–1937 | Politician | Businessman and Premier of Manitoba. In a 1914 debate with suffragist Nellie McClung, Roblin declared, "Nice women don't want the vote," and argued that women's place was in the home, claiming political equality would cause domestic strife and that women's emotions made them unfit for the franchise. [106] [107] |
Herbert Mowat | 1863–1928 | Politician and lawyer | Lawyer and Ontario Supreme Court justice. Mowat actively participated in and supported the Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage in Canada, delivering speeches that reinforced the organization's anti-suffrage stance. [100] |
Clementina Trenholme (Fessenden) | 1843–1918 | Author and social organiser | Fessenden, founding secretary of the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE), was a community leader and widow of an Anglican minister who became a leading figure in the antisuffrage movement in Ontario. She opposed women's suffrage through letters to newspapers and public advocacy, arguing that suffrage was "the thin edge of the wedge, opening the door to the inner room of socialism, agnosticism, anarchy, feminism, each and all making for the ‘dismemberment of the Empire.'" She believed that a woman's true power lay in the domestic sphere and that granting women the vote would threaten the sanctity of the family and the British Empire. Her outspoken stance, rooted in maternalist arguments and imperial loyalty, made her a prominent voice among antisuffrage women in Ontario. [108] [109] [110] [111] |
Margaret Vallance Taylor | 1840–1922 | Anti-suffrage activist | Taylor, who served as president of the National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC) from 1899 to 1902 and again from 1910 to 1911, opposed women's suffrage in 1910. [112] She stated that extending the vote to women would increase political corruption, arguing that "manhood suffrage… had been more or less disastrous since their votes can be bought. So, too, would those of the women." Taylor and other opponents feared that supporting suffrage would harm the NCWC's reform work and public reputation. When the NCWC narrowly endorsed women's suffrage in 1910 by a vote of 71 to 51, Taylor protested the decision [113] |
Sarah Trumbull Van Lennep | 1862–1952 | Philanthropist, anti-suffrage leader | President of Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage in Canada. Warren did not initially believe in universal suffrage. She founded and served as president of the Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage in Canada in 1914, but ultimately accepted women's right to vote when it was granted in 1917. [114] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Félix F. Palavicini | 1881–1952 | Journalist, writer and federal deputy; member of the 1916-17 Constituent Congress | During the January 1917 debates on Article 34 of the Mexican Constitution, he asked the committee to specify that "citizens" meant men only, argued that otherwise "we are in danger of women organising to vote and be voted for." [115] |
Silvano Barba González | 1895–1967 | Lawyer, president of the Partido Nacional Revolucionario (PRN) 1936-38; later governor of Jalisco and federal senator | As PRN president he issued a 4 Sept 1936 "Manifiesto del PRN" stating that women should first be mobilised in party-guided "auxiliary" organisations and gradually prepared for political rights. The PRN leadership did not advance President Lázaro Cárdenas's 1937 suffrage amendment to the promulgation stage, citing fears of clerical influence on female voters. [116] [117] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Catharine Beecher | 1800–1878 | Educator and writer | Beecher said that women should confine their efforts to the home and school, institutions she viewed as vital to society. While she accepted traditional gender roles, she believed women's true power and influence came from their work in domestic and educational spheres. [118] |
Josephine Jewell Dodge | 1855–1928 | Childcare reformer and anti-suffrage leader | In 1911, she helped found and became president of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. [119] Dodge held the perspective that there is danger in adding to the number of politically uninformed voters, which was already seen as a problem. She also believed that if women became involved in the world of partisan politics, they would lose some of their moral authority. [120] |
Helen Kendrick Johnson | 1844–1917 | Writer, poet, and activist | Johnson was "an avid anti-suffragette" and the author of the 1897 book Woman and the Republic. [121] She was a founder of The Guidon and an officer of the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NYSAOWS). [122] In Woman and the Republic, she questioned whether woman suffrage was democratic, suggesting "the anti-suffrage view might be the ultra conservative one, and that democratic principles, strictly and broadly applied," did not necessitate extending the vote to women. [123] She characterized her work as a "negative organization" focused on resisting what she viewed as an unfitting role for women in public politics. [124] |
Kate Gannett Wells | 1838–1911 | Writer, social reformer, and anti-suffragist | Wells opposed woman suffrage as an "unwise" method, believing it would hinder women's ability to work "more disinterestedly in both public and private positions" by affiliating them with political parties. She argued suffrage gave women "neither added power nor influence" in business or education, and stated it would "weaken the force of family life," "bring church matters into politics," "lessen chivalry and tenderness between men and women," and politicize social reform. For the good of "home, school, and state," she urged women remain nonpartisan. [125] |
Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren | 1825–1898 | Poet, writer, and translator | She was a prominent opponent of woman suffrage. [126] Dahlgren believed that "suffrage was an affront to divine law and the natural order and a threat to family and society". [127] Using her writings and her influential social position in Washington, Dahlgren campaigned against woman suffrage alongside other socially prominent women. [128] She authored Thoughts on Female Suffrage and in Vindication of Woman's True Rights, articulating her defense of traditional roles for women. [129] |
Molly Elliot Seawell | 1860–1916 | Historian and writer | Seawell was a prominent anti-suffragist who argued that granting women the vote led to negative social outcomes, including higher taxes, increased poverty and divorce, illiteracy, and greater political influence from saloonkeepers and socialists. She claimed that women in suffrage states faced more violence and were even at risk of being legally obligated to support their husbands. Seawell also suggested that suffrage could revive African American voting and criticized militant suffragists abroad, notably Emmeline Pankhurst. Despite strong rebuttals from suffragists like Adèle Clark, Seawell continued to promote her views through publications and public commentary. [130] |
Ida Tarbell | 1857–1944 | Writer, journalist, biographer and lecturer | Tarbell viewed the campaign for the vote as a diversion from what she considered more pressing issues, such as economic and social reform. Tarbell argued that many women who opposed suffrage did so out of concern for preserving existing social roles and feared that political change might undermine more impactful forms of civic engagement. She believed that women could contribute meaningfully to society without necessarily participating in the electoral process. [131] |
Grace Duffield Goodwin | 1869–1926 | Author and anti-suffragist | President of the District of Columbia Anti-Suffrage Association. Led anti-suffrage campaigns, served on the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage's executive committee, chaired the D.C. Auxiliary in 1912, and debated Carrie Chapman Catt. [132] [133] [134] |
Annie Riley Hale | 1859–1944 | Teacher, author and social critic | Hale argued against women's suffrage before the U.S. House Committee. In 1916, she published The Eden Sphinx, claiming that women's lack of political power was due to their failure to influence men as mothers, and that women in the United States already had sufficient legal and economic rights. She also published a pamphlet in 1917 discussing the biological and sociological aspects of suffrage. [135] [136] [137] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Carrie M. Reid | 1878–1970 | Anti-suffrage activist | The Anti-Franchise League was co-founded by Reid, and Freda Derham. In July 1900 they wrote a letter to the The Argus stating that they did not wish to have the vote. [138] Reid and Derham referred to themselves as "Victoria's girls" and positioned themselves as representatives of a younger generation than those who organized the 1891 suffrage petition. [139] At the time that petition was compiled, Reid was 15 and Derham 12. [140] They claimed their perspectives were more contemporary and better aligned with the views of the general population. [141] |
Freda Derham | 1871–1957 | Anti-suffrage activist | The Anti-Franchise League was co-founded by Derham, and Reid. In July 1900 they wrote a letter stating that they did not wish to have the vote. [138] |
Jacob Goldstein | 1839–1910 | Anti-suffrage activist | Goldstein chaired the meeting and was appointed organising secretary of the Anti-Franchise League, alongside Carrie Reid and Freda Derham as joint secretaries. [142] His involvement, in contrast to the activism of his wife Isabella and daughter Vida Goldstein, both leading suffragists, led to a permanent separation from Isabella. [143] |
Arthur Sachse | 1860–1920 | Politician | In May 1892, Sachse was elected to the Legislative Council as the member for North-Eastern Province. His political stance aligned with the Council's conservative outlook, which regarded women's suffrage as "another socialistic advance" to be opposed. [144] |
Nathaniel Levi | 1830–1908 | Politician | As a parliamentary candidate, he toured towns advocating issues he supported, including ‘one man, one vote' for Legislative Council elections. [145] Participated in anti-suffrage meetings. [146] |
Malcolm McKenzie | 1849–1933 | Politician | Participated in legislative opposition to women's suffrage through association with the Anti-Franchise League. [146] |
P. J. Gandon | 1850–1920 [147] | Anti-suffrage activist | Gandon, secretary of the Anti-Female Suffrage League, urged Prime Minister Barton in 1901 to reject women's suffrage, calling it a dangerous, unnecessary reform lacking public mandate. [148] He argued it had failed elsewhere, claimed women were already represented, and claimed that enfranchising the uneducated would harm the state. Gandon viewed political engagement as unsuitable for most women, and labeled the movement as socialist and destabilizing. [149] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Henry Smith Fish | 1838–1897 | Anti-suffrage activist | Co-founder of New Zealand Anti-Franchise League. Fish actively opposed extending the vote to women and organized a major anti-suffrage petition, but his credibility suffered when it was revealed that he had paid canvassers for signatures, many of which were found to be fictitious or duplicated. [150] [151] |
Richard Seddon | 1845–1906 | Prime Minister | Seddon opposed women's suffrage, especially during the crucial debate in the Legislative Council in 1893. [152] He and other opponents tried to block the 1893 women's suffrage bill, but their efforts backfired. Two councillors who had been against women's suffrage changed their votes to protest Seddon's tactics. This unexpected support helped the bill pass. [153] |
Walter Carncross | 1855–1940 | Politician | Carncross was member of the House of Representatives for Taieri; he opposed women's suffrage by introducing an amendment proposing that if women were to be granted the right to vote, they should also be eligible to serve as Members of Parliament. This move was widely viewed as a deliberate attempt to derail the suffrage bill, rather than a genuine endorsement of women's full political participation. It reportedly angered members of the Legislative Council and contributed to the defeat of the suffrage bill. [154] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Armando Antille | 1883–1955 | Lawyer and politician, national senator and finance minister | In the 1946 Senate debate he insisted women were "not equal to men," arguing their duty was home and motherhood and rejecting their eligibility for office. [155] |
Reynaldo Pastor | 1898–1987 | National deputy (Partido Demócrata Nacional) | During the Chamber of Deputies debate he argued that women's vote should be only optional because it was "incompatible with their role as mothers." (1947) [155] |
Enrique Mosca | 1880–1950 | Governor of Santa Fe Province (1920-24) | In 1922 he refused to promulgate the progressive 1921 provincial constitution because it enfranchised women (and foreigners), nullifying their newly won municipal vote. [156] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Lauro Sodré | 1858–1944 | Politician, Deputy, later governor of Pará | During the 1890-91 constitutional assembly he stated "It is indisputable that, the moment we open the field of politics to women, she will necessarily have to yield to the superiority of our sex in this area." Thereby excluding women from the Brazilian Constitution of 1891. [157] |
Pedro Américo | 1843–1905 | Painter & Deputy (Pernambuco) | "A woman's mission is more domestic than public, more moral than political; her proper place is the home, not the forum or the political assembly." (1891) [157] |
Serzedelo Corrêa | 1858–1932 | Deputy (Pará) | Described women as the "guardian angel of the family" and said that thrusting them into political battles would "destroy the family." (1891) [157] |
Muniz Freire | 1861–1918 | Deputy & former Governor (Espírito Santo) | Argued that women voting would bring "competition of the sexes in active life" and lead to anarchy. (1891) [157] |
Coelho e Campos | 1844–1919 | Senator (Sergipe) | Declared: "This is a matter I do not consider; my wife will not vote." (1891) [157] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Yuan Shikai | 1859–1916 | First president of the Republic of China | In 1912, Shikai consolidated autocratic power and moved to restrict the women's suffrage movement. This led to an incident involving Tang Qunying, who led a pistol-armed group into parliament; when the suffrage question was raised, their jeering forced the session to adjourn. [158] In March 1913, Shikai banned the Women's Suffrage Alliance, ordered the arrest of Qunying, and dissolved pro-suffrage gatherings, effectively ending China's first organized suffrage campaign. By November 1913, the Women's Suffrage Movement was formally outlawed, leading to the closure of many progressive women's journals and a decline in early feminist activism in China. [159] |
Duan Qirui | 1865–1936 | Premier & Anhui-clique war-lord | As head of the 1914–16 provisional government, Duan oversaw constitution-drafting conferences that refused every proposal to insert equal-voting clauses, despite mass lobbying by the Women's Suffrage Alliance. [160] |
Zhang Shizhao | 1881–1973 | Intellectual, Minister of Education | In 1925 he urged Duan to close the Beijing Women's Normal University and clamp down on activists, denouncing their campaign for political rights. [161] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Itō Hirobumi | 1838–1897 | Prime Minister | During Hirobumi's leadership, the Meiji Civil Code and related laws explicitly excluded women from political participation, such as voting and holding office. The Japanese constitution, specifically, the Constitution of the Empire of Japan (Meiji Constitution), drafted under his direction and modeled after European systems, served as a central barrier by legally limiting women's rights and reinforcing male authority. [162] |
Mori Arinori | 1847–1889 | Education Minister | Arinori opposed universal suffrage and favored limiting voting rights to the male educated elite, arguing that political participation should be weighted toward those with higher education. [163] He promoted gender complementarity and nation-building, advocating reforms like mutual consent in marriage while confining women to roles as wives, mothers, and educators. [164] |
Fujimura Yoshirō | 1871–1933 | Newspaper owner, House of Peers member (1917-33) | In 1921 the House of Peers, led by Baron Yoshirō, rejected a bill to revise Article 5 of the Public Peace Police Law to let women attend political meetings and rallies. He deemed women's "participation in political movements is extremely boring," insisted it "goes against natural laws in a physiological as well as psychological sense," maintained "the woman's place is in the home," stating granting them political rights "subverts the family system," and branded these "peculiar women trying to become politically active" as "extremely shameful." [165] |
Kiyoura Keigo | 1850–1942 | Prime Minister of Japan in 1924 | In the 1921 House-of-Peers debate on revising Article 5 of the Security Police Law, which barred women from political meetings, Kiyoura declared that "a woman's fundamental mission (joshi no honbun) lies in the home; political activity violates that duty" (p. 701). The peers overturned the lower house's pro-amendment vote the very next day. [166] When a municipal-suffrage bill reached cabinet in 1931, Kiyoura told colleagues it would "first ruin the household and then the state," and the measure died in the House of Peers (p. 705). [166] |
Name | Lifespan | Occupation | Opposition to women's suffrage |
---|---|---|---|
Kozmidi Efendi | 1870 – ? | Istanbul deputy | Per Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi, 1909, p. 356, he argued that Ottoman women "do not directly take part in political affairs … they vote only through the men to whom they are subject," and warned that giving them the franchise would mean "attempting something that even Europe has not yet done." [167] |
Lütfi Fikri Bey | 1872–1934 [168] | Dersim deputy | Rejected the idea of counting women in the electorate, likening them to "children, who also belong to the nation but are not allowed to vote" (pp. 355–356). [167] [169] He argued that, rather than being enfranchised, women should be represented in parliament by male deputies on their behalf [169] |
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